China Prefers Sticking With Dying Windows XP To Upgrading 333
tdog17 writes "China says it wants Microsoft to extend support for Windows XP because that will help in its fight to stop proliferation of pirated Microsoft software. A state copyright official says the release of Windows 8 means a substantial increase in the selling price of a Windows operating system, especially in light of the upcoming end-of-life of Windows XP, which is still used by a large percentage of Chinese. That could drive users to buy pirated copies of a new operating system because they are cheaper, he says."
Why (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah right (Score:2, Interesting)
I live here (see IP) and I have NEVER, EVER seen a legitimate copy of XP.
Here in China... (Score:5, Interesting)
A few months ago I was talking to a sales clerk at a computer market. I saw stickers for Ubuntu on the laptops there, yet the operating system was obviously Windows. I pointed at the sticker with a smirk, and asked him about it, already knowing the answer. He sheepishly tried to tell me how they put on Windows because that's the standard in China. Obviously they were getting discounts from the manufacturers for dumping the Windows tax, and then turning around and installing pirated Windows on these computers. By the way, these were big brand names like Dell, HP, Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, etc. Out of curiosity, I asked him if many people in China use Linux, and he said it is used mostly for servers (he mentioned Red Flag Linux specifically).
Microsoft is running out of milk cows (Score:5, Interesting)
Used to that Microsoft can sell anything.
Used to that anything with the Microsoft (c) brand on it, no matter if it's the OS or mouse or keyboard or office suite, they are guaranteed to sell like hotcakes.
No more.
With one fumble after another, with more and more alternatives to Microsoft's products (of which many of them are free), Microsoft is running out of cash cows.
Right now they are so desperate that they are trying to milk Windows 8 as much while the going is still good.
Re:Why (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not that 8 is expensive, it's that XP has been heavily discounted due to age. A full XP licence at launch was a whole lot more expensive than a Windows 8 licence is today, even without accounting for inflation.
lies, damn lies! (Score:4, Interesting)
He linked the demise of XP to China’s efforts to stem software piracy by making pirated software seem a better option. “These practices affect the smooth operations of genuine software in China,” Yan Xiaohong is quoted as saying.
Windows XP is easy to pirate but Win 7/8 is a total pain in the ass and updates thwart previously working cracks. Wouldn't this mean that moving to Win 7/8 would be more likely to prevent piracy? Then again, they could just help ReactOS, they sure as hell have reverse engineered Windows enough to make a proper implementation.
Re:New model mentality (Score:5, Interesting)
What's wrong with the Windows 7 start menu? It's essentially the XP one, except you can just tap a key and enter the first few characters of the app you want instead of dragging your mouse around some enormous list. You can revert to a Windows XP-style menu bar, too. Other than that it is the bugfixed, more technically-capable version of XP that you want: MS has been iterating on that same code base for a decade and a half now.
Now, Windows 8, that was a miscalculation. One interface to rule them all is not an answer to the tablet conundrum.
Why not... (Score:3, Interesting)
XP is not "dying" I have servers running Windows NT 3.51 that still make more money an hour than 100% of the people here on slashdot. and they are 100% secure because they are on a segregated and airgapped lan.
When you have something working and you have enough spare hardware to keep it working, why waste money and time "upgrading" simply because some idiots think you need to. Short of someone doing a "mission impossible" break in my servers are 100% hacker proof. Oh and here's a tip they ALL have the administrator password set as password1234.
They are specialized servers that can play back 16 broadcast quality MPEG2 streams into digital video in CATV headends. 16 at the same time all from a single pentium 1 processor and barely any ram. the playback cards play the video directly from the SCSI hard drives. The replacement today from Seachange are less capable and break down more. These require nearly ZERO attention and continue to run year after year just printing money for us. and we have enough spare parts to handle any issues and give us a year lead time if we ever needed to do a complete upgrade to current tech. If an OS if supported means nothing at all if you have sysadmins and network people that actually have a clue as to what they are doing.